At the end of June, Instagram announced “their most exciting feature to date,” IGTV: a new app for watching long-form, vertical video from your favorite Instagram creators.
“While there’s a stand-alone IGTV app, you’ll also be able to watch from within the Instagram app so the entire community of one billion can use it from the very start.” Having to have the option to watch IGTV from within the Instagram app will contribute to the success of this new feature. No one needs another app. AND, can we all take a moment to appreciate that we finally have a platform made to stream vertical portrait mode 🙌.
Days after the rollout, UConn’s video team sat with our social team to discuss potential higher ed use. We produce a lot of high-quality, edited videos, most of which exceed the regular Instagram feed capabilities, causing us to shorten the content and direct people to YouTube. This will allow us to still post the entire video, while teasing it in our feed/on our Story. Unlike the original Instagram feed of only supporting 1 minute worth of video, IGTV will allow videos of up to an hour to be uploaded.
Viewers are able to swipe through various longer-form videos, browse through recommended/popular videos, and are able to continue to watch previously started videos.
Our social/digital department has taken a new “social” approach to our YouTube channel since that’s where Gen Z lives and breaths. It’ll be interesting to see if/how IGTV takes off and what kind of content consumers are wanting to see and engage with, and how best higher ed can utilize it's popularity. For higher ed, the question becomes whether or not the long-form videos posted are science/research/institutional-based videos or if lighthearted, campus beauty/life videos will be better received.